×

1,875 new coronavirus cases, 6 additional deaths in Mississippi

By Kaitlin Howell Jul 28, 2021 | 9:07 AM

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) is reporting 1,875 new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Mississippi, along with six additional deaths.

This brings the state’s total number of cases to 339,954 with 7,529 deaths.

On Wednesday, MSDH health officials will hold a news conference to discuss another COVID-19 death in a child under 18 years old, the new CDC guidelines and booster shots. The news conference will start at 1:30 p.m.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves does not plan to issue a mask mandate for schools, even as COVID-19 cases are proliferating in a state with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation.

“Governor Reeves has no intention of requiring students and staff to wear masks when they’re in school this fall,” his spokeswoman, Bailey Martin, said in response to questions Tuesday.

A few Mississippi school districts have already started classes, and others are starting by mid-August. Some parents have raised concerns about the virus spreading among children too young to be vaccinated, and many school districts have said they will not require students or employees to wear masks because the governor has not set a mask mandate.

Reeves, a Republican, has been outside Mississippi for several days and has made few public statements about the pandemic, even as Republican governors in neighboring Arkansas and Alabama have been outspoken in promoting vaccination efforts.

Reeves posted Friday on Twitter that “risks associated with not getting vaccinated (are greater than) risks associated with getting vaccinated.”

Reeves’s Twitter and Facebook pages posted photos Tuesday of the governor with one of his daughters in Orlando, Florida, where her club basketball team won a tournament. His recent social media posts also showed that Reeves attended a Republican Governors Association meeting last week in Colorado, then spoke Friday at an local Republican event in Orange County, Florida.

Reeves set a statewide mask mandate during August and September, then had mandates in counties with counties where the virus was spreading quickly. He lifted the last of the county mask mandates in early March, and his requirement for masks in schools expired when the academic year ended in May.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County

Totals of all reported COVID-19 cases, including those in long-term care (LTC) facilities.

The numbers in this table are provisional. County case and deaths totals may change as investigation finds new or additional information.

County Total Cases Total Deaths Total LTC Facility Cases Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams 3397 88 83 17
Alcorn 3481 74 130 20
Amite 1360 43 57 9
Attala 2246 73 178 36
Benton 1061 25 46 10
Bolivar 4926 134 236 33
Calhoun 1803 32 36 6
Carroll 1256 31 51 10
Chickasaw 2179 60 60 15
Choctaw 820 19 2 0
Claiborne 1050 31 45 9
Clarke 1853 80 123 31
Clay 1957 54 39 5
Coahoma 3122 85 129 12
Copiah 3215 68 90 11
Covington 2896 83 139 39
De Soto 23116 283 113 24
Forrest 8536 159 251 53
Franklin 872 23 40 4
George 2676 51 59 8
Greene 1384 34 53 6
Grenada 2679 88 154 32
Hancock 4214 88 70 14
Harrison 20194 328 494 72
Hinds 23586 440 811 132
Holmes 1989 74 104 20
Humphreys 999 33 34 9
Issaquena 173 6 0 0
Itawamba 3135 80 135 24
Jackson 14904 251 244 35
Jasper 2288 48 44 2
Jefferson 706 28 41 7
Jefferson Davis 1157 34 9 1
Jones 8935 169 223 42
Kemper 1019 29 44 9
Lafayette 6513 124 187 55
Lamar 6900 89 54 12
Lauderdale 7770 243 451 101
Lawrence 1406 26 27 2
Leake 2834 75 92 16
Lee 10628 179 222 42
Leflore 3598 125 236 52
Lincoln 4157 116 198 40
Lowndes 6956 151 259 63
Madison 10864 227 393 70
Marion 2828 81 158 24
Marshall 4677 106 65 15
Monroe 4309 137 190 55
Montgomery 1320 44 54 9
Neshoba 4252 181 207 59
Newton 2602 64 87 15
Noxubee 1347 35 35 6
Oktibbeha 4883 98 222 36
Panola 4756 112 104 15
Pearl River 5100 151 194 39
Perry 1329 38 22 8
Pike 3624 113 135 37
Pontotoc 4446 73 86 13
Prentiss 2967 63 99 15
Quitman 843 19 0 0
Rankin 15217 290 433 63
Scott 3387 76 114 18
Sharkey 516 18 45 8
Simpson 3199 90 159 20
Smith 1781 35 68 8
Stone 2222 37 85 14
Sunflower 3455 94 123 20
Tallahatchie 1831 42 50 7
Tate 3524 88 80 19
Tippah 3027 68 119 13
Tishomingo 2384 70 102 27
Tunica 1132 27 18 2
Union 4313 79 131 23
Walthall 1446 48 69 13
Warren 4698 127 168 37
Washington 5559 139 190 39
Wayne 2754 43 72 11
Webster 1200 32 61 12
Wilkinson 771 32 25 5
Winston 2363 84 130 39
Yalobusha 1706 40 82 22
Yazoo 3376 74 147 20
Total 339,954 7,529 10,615 1,996

Estimated Recoveries

Presumed COVID-19 cases recovered, estimated weekly (does not include cases still under investigation).

MSDH has more information about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine on its website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.